“Create a social network or risk everything. That was the original pitch for Google’s Facebook rival, Google+, a refrain hammered over and over by the social network’s chief architect, Vic Gundotra, in meetings with the company’s top brass.”
Today in Apple history: Steve Jobs secures Macintosh name
“November 16, 1982: Intent on calling Apple’s upcoming personal computer the “Macintosh,” Steve Jobs pens an impassioned plea to audio company McIntosh Laboratory asking permission to use the name. Before the iPhone, the Macintosh was the most iconic product name Apple had.”
7 little-known Spotify features that will make your experience better
“Spotify is one of the most used music streaming apps in the world — as of June this year it had 140 million active users. But for an app so widely used, a lot of its better features are hidden.”
Google demands Cerberus anti-theft app to be less stealthy
“While Google provides its own tracking and anti-theft service through Android Device Manager, some users prefer third-party tools. One of these is Cerberus, a powerful and customizable anti-theft app that has been around for years.”
AT&T acknowledges nationwide outage preventing users from making calls
“After a multitude of reports on Twitter and other social media platforms, AT&T has acknolwedged that some cusotmers are facing issues placing wireless calls. Reports of the outage first began earlier this evening and DownDetecor shows over 6,000 complaints from users.”
Apple reminds iPhone X owners they’re using an OLED display
“Apple’s bezel-less “X” is the first iPhone with an OLED screen — a technology known for its greater contrast and saturation, but also for its tendency to get burn-in.”
iPhone X teardown finds major changes inside the gleaming exterior
“The iPhone 8 may have been filled with the expected kit, but we’ve all been looking forward to finding out what fun Apple’s engineers had putting together the all-new iPhone X — and it doesn’t disappoint.”
Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note 8 users can now disable the Bixby button entirely
“When Samsung announced that it would launch its own virtual assistant called Bixby alongside the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8, we were skeptical. When we actually got our hands on the phone and tried it for ourselves, we were disappointed.”
Microsoft ends its last free Windows 10 promo on December 31st
“Microsoft largely stopped offering free Windows 10 upgrades back in July 2016. However, there’s been an ongoing exception: if you use accessibility features, you’ve had an extension of that promo. And now, that last deal is coming to an end.”
AT&T sees almost 1M fewer upgrades during iPhone 8 launch quarter ahead of iPhone X release
“AT&T recently revealed some of its Q3 data, and the carrier says it saw 900,000 fewer smartphone upgrades compared to the year ago quarter. A recent Bloomberg piece suggests that the AT&T drop in year-over-year smartphone sales could be a sign that the iPhone 8 isn’t doing so hot.”
